Program for November 3rd, 2006

The Solar Future is Now

Who Am I?

Cory Lawrence will do his best to answer that question
in several enterntaining and englightening minutes.

Meeting of October 20th, 2006

Welcome, Invocation, Thought for the Day

Well gosh, in the hubbub of settling guests and conversation
we can only be assured that Prez. George Egan did call
the meeting to order. There was a moment of silence
for world peace. There was a Pledge of Allegiance,
and, there was thought for the day. But quoting
X-Prez & Secretary Jon Lawlis later on in the meeting, “I
was busy”.

Visiting Rotarians

Still busy.

Rotarians with Guests

Catherine Hays of Greater Bay Funding reintroduced
herself after many weeks absence, And also introduced
her guest Sylvia, whose last name I did not get.

Glenn Daggs, who need no introduction, introduced
his Regional Manager from Arizona, who is also his
brother, Victor Daggs.

Jon Lawlis guest was Mark Little.

Jim Young introduced his guest at the front table,
Bill Lindsey, Richmond City Manager.

Sunshine Report

The sun was behind a little dark cloud today as Charlie
Wong was not feeling well and had to leave the meeting
early. Charlie, we hope you are feeling
better.

Announcements

The foundation of our Rotary Int’l Foundation
effort, Erle Brown gave the club a pep talk about making
contributions to the RIF. Erle said contributions
to date are 55% of Goal at $3,900. As many clubs
in the district have made no contribution, we’re
doing OK. Erle gave special thanks for the $1,000
contribution given by Dave Calfee noting it went a long
way to get us to 55%. RIF contributions fund Rotary’s
international philanthropies including the matching grant
program run out of HQ and our local district. One
third of RIF donations come back to the district and
local clubs as grant support three years after the contribution
is made. Also:

Support Rotary Foundation International.

Make your checks out to Rotary Foundation International. Designations
to Polio Plus etc do not count for RIF contributions.

New members know that for your first Paul Harris
($1,000 contribution to RIF), the club will match your
contribution dollar for dollar. Become a Paul Harris
Fellow for $500.

Margaret Morkowski asked the members
to sign up for the Peres (pronounced PEAR ez —like in
easy—according to John Nicol) Wednesday November 15th,
5 – 7 PM.

Special Events

Red Badge Rookie and continuing candidate for Richmond
City Council (we’ll get to this in a minute)
Tony Thurmond stepped up to the podium to give his “Who
am I?”. Tony said this presentation will
have three themes: 1)I may look funny. 2)I’m the
luckiest person in the world. 3)Tony’s personal
mantra; “It’s not how you start the race,
but how you finish it that’s important.”

Tony’s family hails from Panama. They immigrated
to the West Coast. Life started rough as his mother
died after their arrival in the States and Tony was shipped
off to the mean streets of South Philadelphia to grow
up with relatives. Tony’s luck started to
change for the better as his family as a whole “was
always there for me” and took care of him in an
otherwise tough environment. Tony said he was here
today standing on their shoulders because he very easily
could have been swept up in that tough town like so many
other young people, even now.

Acknowledging fellow Temple U. alumnus Bob
Dabney, Tony
said he graduated from college after being elected Student
Body President. He must have graduated because
he went on to Bryn Mawr College to get two MS degrees,
one in Social Work and the other in Law and Social Work.
Yes, Bryn Mawr is or was an all girl’s school,
but Tony didn’t cover that accomplishment in much
detail.

Tony continues his family’s tradition of being
there to help young people by operating non-profit social
service organizations for youth. The Oakland-based
organization he directs helps young people who become
adults in the foster care system. Often they are
are "shown the door" the day they turn 18 and are no
longer eligible for state support. Tony's organization
helps these young folks get stay on their feet.

Tony’s lived in Richmond six years, is married
to Kristin and has two lovely daughters (In all
three other reasons he is the luckiest person in the
world). Tony’s student-daze political
bug got him to run for City Council in 2004. At
the same time he lost a brother at 35 which caused him
to withdraw from the world, but “I’m back”.

He
lost the 2004 election but was appointed to a Council
vacancy in 2005 and is now running to be elected to that
seat. In a very brief political statement
Tony said, “I love to serve”. He said
he is more than willing to put up with the 90% BS that
flows through the Council in order to deal with the 10%
— important issues that affect people’s lives. Maybe
the best news for Richmond and Rotary is that Tony is
a young 38 years old so we can expect to benefit from
his compassion, energy and insight for many years to
come. Good luck in the election Tony Thurmond! Your
editor notes that Tony gave one of the most moving Who
Am I’s of recent memory. You are invited
to get to know him better than the abbreviated
details listed here.

Recognitions

Dandy Don Lau took the podium for recognitions but began
by asking, “Are those really political campaign
ads on the tables for one Tony Thurmond (for
City Council) and EJ Shalaby (East Bay Regional Parks
District 1)? Tony Thurmond, a model of political
integrity immediately fessed up that his WERE political
advertising, but he only brought them in support of his ‘Who
Am I?’. Dandy Don negotiated a $200 settlement
with Tony for the Club. This gave EJ a political
opening in which he also admitted that his little tiny
post card was a political ad but comparatively speaking
only worth a $100 contribution. Both these fine
Rotarians are clearly gentlemen and politicians!

Getting traditional Dandy Don asked Cory
Lawrence how
he was doing? Cory acknowledged he as doing OK for just
having had another birthday. Don got Cory to confess
that he didn’t get to do what he wanted for his
birthday, watch a football game and drink scotch. But
he did get to do what he always gets to do, appease his
girl friend with a trip to LA. Local counsel did
advise Cory to use the word “appease” with
caution. Cory is “doing OK” partly
because he just turned 29. Cory honored his B-Day
with a $100 contribution to the Rotary Foundation.

Don asked Ren Partridge how he was doing? The
reply came just fine and I’m happy to be here! Ren
just celebrated his B-Day, he had a $100 for the Club
and felt like he was a 100 years hold. Ren celebrated
with a very pleasant dinner at his daughter’s home.

John Nicol asked to be recognized on behalf of Charlie
Wong who had to leave early but who celebrated his 81st
B-day with a $100 contribution to the Rotary Foundation. Thanks
John and Happy Birthday Charlie.

Happy and Sad Dollars

Erle Brown had Happy
Dollars for Cal’s cliff hanger victory during his
daughters wedding, which he was also happy about. But,
Sad Dollars for the passing of his good friend and Rotarian
Lloyd Henry. Lloyd’s death was news to the
club as it caused sighs and moans around the room. Our
condolences to both Erle and the Henry’s.

Margaret Morkowski had Happy Dollars for all the Rotarians
who participated in the Chamber’s Golf Tournament. A
show of hands indicated more than half the room participated.

Jan “B-Nimble” Brown had Happy Dollars because
of her recent conversation with past member Paul
Washington who is doing very well in Colorado, teaching part time
at he U of Co and acquiring companies.

Herb Cole had Happy Dollars for the trip that he, Normie,
Jon L. & Jon’s daughter are taking to “do
good” with Polio Plus and the drive to defeat malaria
in Ghana. Herb also said that Erle
Brown knows
how to put on one heck of a good wedding.

Raffle Results

There was $530 in the kitty. Stony
Stonework got
lucky, but, not quite lucky enough and ended up with
a white ball and free lunch.

The Program

Prez
George asked Jim Young to introduce today’s speaker. Dennis
Ciocca is Managing Director at the investment banking
house of Sutter Securities SF. Dennis spoke about
Proposition 90 on next week’s ballot and private
versus public benefit in urban renewal and eminent domain. But
first Young and Ciocca had to say a few nice things about
each other since they go back so far, acknowledging projects
that worked for the public, mostly low income, Section
VIII and student housing and also worked for the shareholders
at their various banks.

Dennis said a lot and for those who want to review what
he considers the best analysis of Prop. 90, an analysis
that recommends a “No” vote, he suggests
you read an article from
the California Redevelopment Association. Ciocca
presentation made three main points:

Eminent Domain has been, is now and always will be
controversial even though its process of taking private
property is allowed in the US Constitution.

There is a hidden agenda in Prop 90 having to do
with the “taking of value” that will make
it almost impossible for the public to afford any kind
of land use restriction or planning. Simply stated
it would require government to reimburse property owners
for the loss of future value when a property is restricted
from “maximum development”. A similar
law in Oregon has created 2,600 cases of “diminished
value” claiming $6.0B in public restitution.

Prop 90 has been bankrolled by New York real estate
developer and well known Libertarian Howard Riche for
both political and economic reasons as passage of Prop
90 would allow all developers to reap huge wind fall
profits from any restriction community planning or
other governmental activities would place on their
real estate development activities.

Thank you Dennis Ciocca for sharing your insights into
this complicated subject that will have a direct impact
on Richmond.

Upcoming Programs

November 10
"We can do it! And we did!"
Lois Boyle, Richmond Museum Association, takes us back
to WWII Richmond.

November 17th
Rotary Peace Fellow Hélène Carvallo (of district 1660 in France) will tell us about the Peace Fellows program.